Wall Art Gone Wild

By

Ellen Gamerman

Jan. 3, 2013 6:51 p.m. ET

This wallpaper doesn't belong in Grandma's bathroom.

Looking beyond the limits of picture frames, contemporary artists are going after the whole wall, attacking it with paint, video and their own wallpaper. The floor-to-ceiling works—prevalent at recent international art fairs—convey images ranging from the unsettling (floating eyeballs, writhing snakes, dead flies) to the whimsical (Andy Warhol in drag).